Ownership of the print top 20?

[Phineas Crow]

Out of those, I own:

6. Tome of Horrors Necromancer Games 4.83 12
7. Hammer & Helm Green Ronin Publishing 4.80 5
8. Plot and Poison Green Ronin Publishing 4.80 5
9. Manual of the Planes Wizards of the Coast 4.79 14
10. The Book of Taverns Necromancer Games 4.75 8
12. The Tomb of Abysthor Necromancer Games 4.71 7
13. The Monsternomicon Vol. I Privateer Press 4.71 7
14. Book of the Righteous, The Green Ronin Publishing 4.70 10
20. World of Whitethorn 1B: The Village of Oester Open World Press 4.60 5

 

[DaveMage]

I own:

2. Midnight Fantasy Flight Games 5.00 6
6. Tome of Horrors Necromancer Games 4.83 12
7. Hammer & Helm Green Ronin Publishing 4.80 5
8. Plot and Poison Green Ronin Publishing 4.80 5
9. Manual of the Planes Wizards of the Coast 4.79 14
10. The Book of Taverns Necromancer Games 4.75 8
11. Call of Cthulhu d20 Wizards of the Coast 4.75 8
12. The Tomb of Abysthor Necromancer Games 4.71 7
13. The Monsternomicon Vol. I Privateer Press 4.71 7
14. Book of the Righteous, The Green Ronin Publishing 4.70 10
15. Starfarers Handbook Fantasy Flight Games 4.70 10
16. Scarred Lands: Ghelspad Sword & Sorcery Studios 4.67 9
18. Unearthed Arcana Wizards of the Coast 4.67 6
20. World of Whitethorn 1B: The Village of Oester Open World Press 4.60 5

I've ordered...
4. The Lords of the Night: Vampires Bottled Imp Games 5.00 5

 

[haiiro]

I own these five:

6. Tome of Horrors Necromancer Games 4.83 12
7. Hammer & Helm Green Ronin Publishing 4.80 5
11. Call of Cthulhu d20 Wizards of the Coast 4.75 8
13. The Monsternomicon Vol. I Privateer Press 4.71 7
14. Book of the Righteous, The Green Ronin Publishing 4.70 10

...and own and have actually used these two:

9. Manual of the Planes Wizards of the Coast 4.79 14
18. Unearthed Arcana Wizards of the Coast 4.67 6

I've gotten some good ideas from the first five titles, but never used anything from them per se (or brought them to the table to play). Good stuff, though.

 

[Davelozzi]

I have seven of these:

5. Mutants & Masterminds Green Ronin Publishing 4.92 12
6. Tome of Horrors Necromancer Games 4.83 12
9. Manual of the Planes Wizards of the Coast 4.79 14
11. Call of Cthulhu d20 Wizards of the Coast 4.75 8
12. The Tomb of Abysthor Necromancer Games 4.71 7
14. Book of the Righteous, The Green Ronin Publishing 4.70 10
18. Unearthed Arcana Wizards of the Coast 4.67 6

Of those, the only ones that I've used are Unearthed Arcana and Mutants & Masterminds, once each. Though one of my players just joined my campaign with a dwarf who is multiclass totem barbarian and dwarven paragon, so Unearthed Arcana should be seeing more regular use in the immediate future.

I'm sort of surprised that the Spycraft core book isn't on the top 20. I've used that in play about 3 times. Mostly I use the 3 D&D core books, an occasional published module or adventure from Dungeon magazine, and sometimes Fiend Folio.

 

[trancejeremy]

I think Spycraft was in the top 20 for a while, until my '3' knocked it out (though that wasn't my intent). Though I like Spycraft, the main rulebook just isn't very comprehensive, even for the spy genre. It's very tightly focused on the Mission Impossible style espionage - if you want to do anything else, you have to buy other books to get core classes, and if you want real guns, you have to buy a gun book. (I point out probably a dozen or so spies from fiction that couldn't be done using the classes in the main Spycraft book).


Anyway, rating is something of a function of how many reviews a product gets. The more reviews, the more likely it will be someone won't like it as much as everyone else. I think something probably needs at least 10 reviews to be really really accurate.

 

[Conaill]

Wait wait wait....

Slaine is the top seller overall in D20 Publishing?

Nobody's been by to torpedo its score like some other, arguably as deserving former chart toppers. (Don't think for a second I am just talking about one book...)

Not that I think Slaine really DESERVES torpedoed. It's just not as popular as some titles that drew more attention to themselves and got torpedoed.

(And people wonder why I don't put a lot of stock in the score system.)

Note that some other entries in the top 20 have *many* more 5-star votes than the 6 for Slaine and Midnight. For example, Mutants & Masterminds has a 11 5-star votes and only one single 4-star. It's not that M&M has been "torpedoed" as Psion so colorfully puts it, it's more that some of the top products have only had a very small number of votes, so their rating isn't quite as reliable as for the products with many more votes.

See, this is a good example why more "professional" rating services like imdb.com use something called a "Bayesian estimate" to compensate for differences in the number of votes for each candidate. I won't go into details of why the formula has the shape it does, but the upshot is that it's equivalent to adding a small number of "pseudo"-votes with a score equal to the overall average score.

For example, the average score for print reviews is around 3.85 , so let's add 5 "3.85 star" votes to each product. Sum of scores for Slaine would be 6 x 5.00 + 5 x 3.85 = 49.23, for an adjusted average score of 4.48. Sum of scores for M&M would be 11 x 5.00 + 1 x 4.00 + 5 x 3.85 = 78.23, for an adjusted average score of 4.60.

So if you take into account the fact that M&M has twice as many votes as Slaine, and only one single 4-star vote, M&M should be ranked higher than M&M.

Here's what the top 20 would look like, using a Bayesian estimate a la imdb.com:

1	Mutants & Masterminds	Green Ronin Publishing	4.60
2	Tome of Horrors     	Necromancer Games	4.54
3	Manual of the Planes	Wizards of the Coast	4.54
4	2000AD: Sla'ine RPG	Mongoose Publishing	4.48
5	Midnight        	Fantasy Flight Games	4.48
6	Crooks!         	Green Ronin Publishing	4.42
7	Lords o/tNight:Vampires	Bottled Imp Games	4.42
8	Starfarers Handbook	Fantasy Flight Games	4.42
9	Book of the Righteous	Green Ronin Publishing	4.42
10	The Book of Taverns	Necromancer Games	4.40
11	Call of Cthulhu d20	Wizards of the Coast	4.40
12	Scarred Lands: Ghelspad	Sword & Sorcery Studios	4.37
13	Lords o/t Night: Liches	Bottled Imp Games	4.37
14	The Tomb of Abysthor	Necromancer Games	4.35
15	Monsternomicon Vol. I	Privateer Press   	4.35
16	Forgotten Realms CS	Wizards of the Coast	4.33
17	Legions of Hell    	Green Ronin Publishing	4.33
18	Hammer & Helm   	Green Ronin Publishing	4.32
19	Plot and Poison    	Green Ronin Publishing	4.32
20	Unearthed Arcana     	Wizards of the Coast	4.29
21	Judge Dredd RPG      	Mongoose Publishing	4.29

Note how all the 5- and 6-vote entries moved down, whereas entries with many more 5-star reviews (such as MotP, Starfarer's HB and BotR) moved up. FRCS, with a whopping 17 reviews of which 11 5-star, moved up 13 places, from #29 to #16, whereas Hammer & Helm and Plot & Poison dropped 11 places because they only barely squeaked by the 5-vote minimum.

So what do you all think... does this ranking make more sense to you? From a statistical point of view, it should be more reliable...

 

[Menexenus]

It's funny. I'm a rabid d20 fan, but I'm a relatively conservative DM. I just use the core books along with the 3.0 Psionics Handbook, Monsters of Faerun, and the Monster Manual II. That's it! So although I own 15 of the top 22, I don't really *use* any of them on a regular basis! (Go figure. Guess I'm just a nut who likes to throw his money away.)

Here are the ones I own:

2. Midnight - Fantasy Flight Games
5. Mutants & Masterminds - Green Ronin Publishing
6. Tome of Horrors - Necromancer Games
7. Hammer & Helm - Green Ronin Publishing
8. Plot and Poison - Green Ronin Publishing
9. Manual of the Planes - Wizards of the Coast
10. The Book of Taverns - Necromancer Games
11. Call of Cthulhu d20 - Wizards of the Coast
12. The Tomb of Abysthor - Necromancer Games
14. Book of the Righteous - The Green Ronin Publishing
15. Starfarers Handbook - Fantasy Flight Games
16. Scarred Lands: Ghelspad - Sword & Sorcery Studios
18. Unearthed Arcana - Wizards of the Coast
21. Nyambe: African Adventures - Atlas Games
22. Freedom City - Green Ronin Publishing

BTW, of the ones I don't have, I'm most interested in getting Monsternomicon and the Village of Oester.

 

[Menexenus]

It's funny. I'm a rabid d20 fan, but I'm a relatively conservative DM. I just use the core books along with the 3.0 Psionics Handbook, Monsters of Faerun, and the Monster Manual II. That's it! So although I own 15 of the top 22, I don't really *use* any of them on a regular basis! (Go figure. Guess I'm just a nut who likes to throw his money away.)

Here are the ones I own:

2. Midnight - Fantasy Flight Games
5. Mutants & Masterminds - Green Ronin Publishing
6. Tome of Horrors - Necromancer Games
7. Hammer & Helm - Green Ronin Publishing
8. Plot and Poison - Green Ronin Publishing
9. Manual of the Planes - Wizards of the Coast
10. The Book of Taverns - Necromancer Games
11. Call of Cthulhu d20 - Wizards of the Coast
12. The Tomb of Abysthor - Necromancer Games
14. Book of the Righteous - The Green Ronin Publishing
15. Starfarers Handbook - Fantasy Flight Games
16. Scarred Lands: Ghelspad - Sword & Sorcery Studios
18. Unearthed Arcana - Wizards of the Coast
21. Nyambe: African Adventures - Atlas Games
22. Freedom City - Green Ronin Publishing

BTW, of the ones I don't have, I'm most interested in getting Monsternomicon and the Village of Oester.

 

[reanjr]

Manual of the Planes.

That was easy

 

[reanjr]

Also note, that 20th place is tied... there are 2 4.6 entries on the next page:

21. Nyambe: African Adventures Atlas Games 4.60 5
22. Freedom City Green Ronin Publishing 4.60

In that case, add on Nyambe to me.